


1310 to Tarvehk

by Gray Shadows (the_afterlight)



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-22
Updated: 2008-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:39:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1627139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_afterlight/pseuds/Gray%20Shadows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As always, a wizard's vacation is never as simple as they might hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1310 to Tarvehk

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to moontyger and djcati for their beta work! This story was so much fun to write. :)
> 
> Written for wintercreek

 

 

"It's like the light's just disappearing," Kit said, watching the nearby star (nearby, that is, as things go in space) from his vantage point beside Nita, on a disc of hardened nothing hovering a few thousand kilometres from the system's second planet. "Look, there," he added, pointing, and the nigh-invisible shield around them obliged by highlighting the direction with a glimmering circle. "Can you see that? It's the last point where the light's reflecting, on that space dust. Beyond there, there's just nothing."

Nita nodded. "So something in between there," she said, touching the shield to mark it, tracing along the arc of the dust's orbit; her other hand brushed her manual, and she smiled softly at the slight 'fizz' that told her it was copying down the information, relayed directly from the screen-like shield. "And there," she continued, this time highlighting Tarvehk, the system's third planet, and the reason they were out in mid-space in the first place. The shield shimmered slightly, plotting out Tarvehk's orbit for her and highlighting the space between it and the dust with a dark crimson. "That's where our problem is. No black hole -- there's no gravity distortion, right?"

Kit nodded. "So something else is interfering, then," he confirmed. "Something on the second planet? Its orbit is between the two points."

"But how would it extend around the entire orbit?" Nita asked. "There's no light reaching anything past Tarvehk, and there're all at different points in their orbits around the star. The second planet's even a third of the way around past Tarvehk."

Kit nodded. "Let's head back down," he said. "We're getting low on air, and we've got, I think, everything we can get up here for now."

It didn't take long to make the trip back down to Tarvehk's surface; their incoming transit point had been getting a lot of use over the last week, their supposed 'vacation'. They should have learned the first time, after the exchange a few years before: a wizard's holiday isn't _lack_ of work, merely _different_ work.

" _Dai_ ," Tom greeted the two as the appeared in the alcove off what served for a living room in the Tarve house they were using. "Find anything?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Nita replied. "We've got a general area around the star where the light's disappearing, but it stretches from Tarvehk almost all the way out to the first planet. Carl get in yet?"

"He's in washing the dishes from lunch before he cooks dinner. Hope you guys are hungry."

Kit grinned, tossing his backpack down on the couch and flopping down beside it. "Are you kidding?" he asked. "I'm eighteen. I'm _always_ hungry."

* * *

_When they were young, Carl had told them (and Nita insisted, "Younger! You're hardly _old_ now!"), he and Tom had gone on errantry to a planet named Tarvehk. "Nothing major," he'd said, "and, really, their local wizards could probably have handled it, but we happened to be going through the Crossings when we ran into someone talking about the problem. We figured it couldn't hurt to tag along and learn something, you know?"_

"It's a nice planet," Tom continued. "And... we're heading there for a vacation. We finally got authorisation to take a few days off." The way he'd said it, too, showed exactly how much they both needed it.

"What can we do? D'you need us to help out whoever's covering for you?" Nita swallowed a bit. "We're not covering for you, are we?" Sure, technically they'd all been seniors when the Pullulus threatened the universe, but it was a little different being a senior when you were senior-ing for wizards around your age, and another thing entirely when you were senior-ing for adult wizards, too, those who had much more experience than you did.

Tom just laughed, and Nita had been glad to hear it. "No," he said. "You've both got a break from classes coming up, right? If you want, you're coming with us."

* * *

Tarvehk was doing all right, even with the lack of light from their star. They were fairly well advanced technologically, and used mostly clean power -- geothermal especially. It wasn't perfect, but they could generate light and heat, and, even if it were slowly cooling down outside with no sign of stopping, inside, at least for the moment, it was still warm. The biggest concern was food, and three of the local systems had offered Tarvehk their surplus, and also to help evacuate if a solution wasn't found soon. What this meant was that Nita and Kit could actually afford to take some time, for once, and not rush through a solution to the current problem. The fact that they were around at all helped, too, freeing up all of Tarvehk's wizards to deal with the planet itself.

After dinner, they sat at the table with Carl as Tom cleaned up, going over the data they'd collected. "I don't see anything you missed," he said, closing his manual. The display hovering over the table shut down as he did so. "You guys planning to go out again tonight?"

Kit glanced at Nita, who shook her head. "I'm not, anyway," she said. "I'm meeting up with Rek'leah to go over the evacuation plans; we're conferencing with Sker'. Want to tag along, Kit? I'm sure Sker'ret would love to hear from you."

"Nah," he replied, but he didn't look at Nita as he said it. "I'll stay in. Something's turning in my head over this, and I want to see if I can think it through."

Nita shared a glance with Carl, who shrugged and nodded. Unspoken, as tightly as he could, Carl told Nita, _I'll make sure everything's okay._ Kit didn't seem to overhear, thankfully.

The trip over to Rek'leah's office was short enough that Nita didn't bother using a transit spell, instead choosing to walk. Even in the darkness, the early evening was cool, and abnormally so for the Tarve summer. Still, it wasn't yet cold enough that Nita needed more than a jacket, one she might wear in early spring back home, where the snow is melting off the trees in the park and you can forget, just for a moment, that you're in New York City. Walking by starlight, too, was an experience she'd not often had, but the stars shone brightly in the sky, too little artificial light to obscure them.

It had started the evening before. She and Kit had been at a party, and she'd been speaking to Rek'leah about the Tarve; Nita had been particularly intrigued by the wings each Tarve had, iridescently green like the carapace of a jewel beetle. Rek'leah was just starting to explain about her species' evolution when the call came in: on the day side of the planet, the sun had gone out, and no one knew why.

Nita had to credit the Tarve: they knew how to react in an emergency. Within half an hour, the entirety of Tarvehk's wizarding population had mobilised in combination with their police force, and a group had gone out to attempt to determine the cause of the lack of light. Rek'leah had gone out with that group, and, as sie was Nita and Kit's 'guide' on the planet, the two had tagged along. Dairine's experience with stars paid off here, insofar as Nita had had to put up with Dairine talking about them constantly (mostly, after he'd been recovered, in the form of "Roshaun says!"), and they had impressed the Tarve wizards with their ability to handle the problem.

"Can you handle it?" Rek'leah asked, wringing hir hands. "I checked the Concordance, you two are listed as having been involved in... Well, I mean, you're _good_."

It took the barest hint from Kit, felt in the back of her head, not even sent so much as felt, for Nita to agree, and that was that: the group returned to Tarvekh, and Nita and Kit went off with Rek'leah to talk about the local star.

She had their initial findings in hand now, product of their research during the day and the information-gathering trip before dinner, and now she needed to speak to Rek'leah about the very serious possibility that they'd need to evacuate the planet.

She wasn't looking forward to this conversation.

* * *

_Sitting in the Crossings, waiting for their scheduled transit to Tarvehk, Tom turned to Kit and asked, "So how's Carmela doing, anyway?"_

Shrugging, Kit had replied, "Okay, last I heard. She's really enjoying the school on Demisiv." He rolled his eyes. "Leave it to my sister to go to college on another planet." He didn't mention Helena. None one did anymore, at least not around Kit. That was a feud that might never be resolved.

"I did, too, you know," Carl interjected. "We both did. I was going off, and Tom ended up deciding he couldn't let me leave him behind, so we went to a school on Tarvehk that takes off-world students. Just for a year, anyway, before transferring back to NYU. Which, hey, how are you guys finding it there?"

Nita and Kit confirmed that NYU was fine, that their classes were fine, that they were nonetheless glad to have some time off. Tom sipped at his blue drink (Kit had insisted that they each get something _blue, and no one had argued). "I wonder if Professor 'reOh is still teaching," he said. "It'll be worth looking hir up, eh, Carl?"_

"Please, old 'reOh hated me and you know it. My facility with words has never extended to prose, not like yours."

Their transit was called; Tom and Carl argued light-heartedly about people they'd known back then, people they absolutely had to look up when they got to Tarvehk.

* * *

Kit was sitting on the couch, holding an old ball of Ponch's in one hand, staring at it thoughtfully. Every now and then, he'd look up, make a motion as if starting to throw the ball against the wall, but he stopped. Paused. Pulled his hand back, and began to stare at the ball again. He didn't notice Carl coming up until the older man had sat down beside him, making the cushions sink a little; it reminded Kit of the couch in the living room at his parents' home, and how it used to sink when his father sat down beside him.

"What's up?" Carl asked, genially, as if he didn't have a care how Kit responded. "Everything all right?"

Kit shrugged. "Yeah," he said. "I'm fine."

"Say it in the Speech," Carl retorted. When Kit said nothing, instead rolling his eyes, he sighed, losing his smile. "Look," Carl continued, "something's bothering you. And that's fine -- but we need you right now, Kit, so you might as well tell me what's going on."

"Nothing, really," Kit tried again. "Just... Thinking about stuff." He gestured with the ball. "Found this in my claudication," he said. "I forgot all about it. It's kind of frightening, actually, how much stuff has built up in there over the years. Anyway, it's just bringing up some old memories, that's all.

"It never ends, does it?" Kit added. His eyes returned to the ball in his hand. "We can't even get a proper vacation, not even for a few days. No matter what we do, or what any of us give up, it never lets up."

"No," Carl agreed. "That's probably not what you want to hear, but it's the truth. It's life. Death is inevitable. Loss is inevitable. But that's why we're here, y'know." He shrugged. "We're a barrier, in a way. A shield. We stand in the way."

Kit nodded slowly, taking in what Carl was saying. All of a sudden, he looked up, startled, and laughed. "Thanks, Carl!" He tossed the ball at the senior before running out of the room. "Take that for Annie, would ya?" _Nita? I think I've figured it out!_

* * *

"So yeah," Nita said. "It's something in this area here, in red." She pointed to the three-dimensional image hovering over her open manual. "Is there anything you can think of there that might be causing it?"

"Nothing comes to mind," Rek'leah said. "You're certain it's nothing on the second planet? And that it starts _after_ the first planet?"

Their meeting hadn't been terribly productive so far. Nita had had little to offer in the way of advice on the evacuation plans, for they were more or less complete as they were -- although she had been glad to hear from Sker'ret, as they worked with him to plan emergency procedures for moving people through the Crossings. The work being done to slow down the planet's heat loss was well-covered, too. They were just now discussing the lack of solar radiation making it to the planet.

"Positive," Nita said. "It's something between your system's ring of space dust and the second planet. Kit and I will head out again in the morning, start a grid-"

"Nita?"

"-search. Do you think you could spare a couple of wizards from the heat-loss project to help?"

"Nita!"

"What, Rek'leah?"

" _What_ ring of space dust?"

All at once, it unfolded in Nita's head, and she groaned. "We're _idiots_ ," she told herself. Just as she went to contact Kit to let him know what she had figured out, she felt him pop into the back of her head.

 _Nita?_ came the call. _I think I've figured it out! It's-_

 _The space dust, right?_ Nita replied. _Yeah, I just figured it out, too. How's it doing it? The dust didn't spread above the plane of the orbit._

She could feel Kit shrugging across the connection. _Hard to say. But we'll figure it out in the morning._ Nita grinned, had to grin, in sympathy to the wide smile she could feel on Kit's face across the connection. _C'mon, finish up with Rek'leah. You -- we -- need to get some sleep if we're going to be any use tomorrow._

* * *

Once they'd identified _where_ the problem was coming from, isolating _what_ and _how_ took very little time at all. Nita and Kit stood once more on their hovering platform of nothing, smiling as the last few wisps of active wizardry faded away. "Did it work?" Nita asked. "Please tell me it worked."

Kit waited, just a moment, and then light began to reflect from the sunward surface of the planet below them. "It worked," Kit assured her. "Tarvehk should be getting light any second now. In fact, if we hurry, we can probably make it back to meet up with Tom and Carl for sunrise."

"I almost can't believe we have to be back for classes tomorrow," Nita said, as she set up her half of the transit back to Tarvehk. "Vacation never seems long enough."

Kit laughed. "You mean you _want_ to be on errantry out here? For longer?"

"Well, when you put it like that... I can't wait to get home."

* * *

_"Hey, Tom?" Carl asked. "Do you remember that trip we took to the mountains? Not back home, I mean, on Tarvehk."_

"Of course. You got sick and we couldn't transit back down the hill to civilisation." Tom looked at Nita and Kit. "Stay out of the mountains," he advised them. "Unless you want to take the long way home. Something in them blocks transits."

Nita and Kit nodded. "Thanks," Nita said. "We'll keep that in mind while sight-seeing." She paued. "We almost ready?"

"Transit to Tarvehk, going patent in t-minus five minutes. I repeat, _" said the person beyond the loudspeaker. "_ Transit to Tarvehk in five minutes. _"_

The four arranged themselves within the gate circle. Nothing else said as they waited. Finally, the voice returned to the loudspeaker. "1310 to Tarvehk, now departing. _" With a flash of light, the gate went patent around the, and the four were on their way to Tarvehk, a chance to get away from it all._

Really, they should know better than that. 

 


End file.
